Cruise to Destiny (Contemporary Romance Novella), Page 3

  ***

  “All right, it’s show time, people!”

  Devon looked up at his boss, a hulking Eastern European woman, and smiled. This was it. In just a few minutes, the doors to the ship would open and the guests would start to flood in. And later in the afternoon, they would set sail for Bermuda. He couldn’t wait.

  “Now, let’s review. You are in for some long hours, but hopefully they will be immensely rewarding for you. You can mingle with the guests when you are not on a shift, but you must remain in your uniform and you must maintain the utmost decorum when in the public eye. You are a reflection of this cruise line, and any inappropriate behavior will get you sent home immediately. Are there any questions?”

  Silence fell over the room. Clearly everyone was terrified of Eugenia. Devon wasn’t terrified of her, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. Besides, he was a good boy at heart. In school, he’d always done what was expected of him—followed the rules when there was the threat of getting in trouble if he didn’t. Life as a wealthy, single bachelor had let him bend the rules as an adult, but not much. Unlike Brody, he didn’t care to spend a night in the slammer for indecent exposure, no matter how fun it might seem to go streaking through Riverside Park at three in the morning.

  “All right,” Eugenia continued when no one raised their hand. “Good luck, everyone!”

  The crowd broke up, some of them rushing to prepare for their first clients and some of them heading toward the employee dining room to fuel up for the day. Devon had already eaten breakfast, and he didn’t have any clients until tomorrow, so he decided to wander the ship and familiarize himself with his temporary home.

  It was a pretty exciting place. Lots of restaurants, discos, a comedy club, lounges and bars. He found the promenade—a faux-open-air street, made to feel as if you were walking through the streets of Paris, with shops and bistros and the English pub. Devon definitely looked forward to checking that out one evening soon.

  Guests were starting to trickle in. They gawked at the ship’s interior while clutching their straw purses and cameras to their chests. Devon greeted everyone with a smile and nod as he strolled about each deck, and they in turn greeted him with excited, goofy smiles. How could anyone be unhappy in a place like this?

  He eventually made his way to the main lobby of the ship, the place where all the guests passed through before branching out to their staterooms. The officers stood upright and in uniform, waiting to help the passengers should they need it. Devon stood off to the side, content to people watch. It wasn’t until a trio of girls passed through the doors that he sat up and took notice. Though it was common to see groups of twenty-something girls board the ship, it wasn’t so common to see one looking so miserable.

  Devon couldn’t help himself. He was desperately curious about the frown she wore. It couldn’t have been too serious. A death in the family wouldn’t send her on a 6-day Bermuda cruise. But maybe a bad break-up? Laid off at work?

  They walked his way, and before he knew what he was doing, he pushed off the wall and inserted himself in their path. “Good morning, ladies. Welcome to the Vision of the Seas. Can I help you find your stateroom?”

  One of the girls giggled, the other smiled, and the one with the sour puss merely looked at him with a blank expression. She blinked her dark brown eyes a few times before she finally cracked the barest of smiles.

  “I think we can probably figure it—”

  Her friend stepped in front of her with a wide smile. “Actually, yes. This place is just so big,” she drawled, with a helpless Southern Belle accent. “I don’t know how we’ll ever find our way around.”

  Sourpuss rolled her eyes, and Devon resisted the urge to laugh. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it in no time,” he said as he took the card with their room number on it. “Aha, right this way.”

  In truth, he really had no idea where he was going. He would follow the placards just like everyone else, but at least he would have a little fun doing it…and maybe find out what was stuck in Sourpuss’s craw.

  “So, what do you do?” one of the girls asked him.

  “Actually, I’m a masseuse. And it’s my first day,” he added with a sheepish smile.

  “Oh, my God! That’s so awesome. I’m totally going to book a massage with you. What’s your name?”

  “Devon,” he said. That was all they needed to know. He was going to do his best to keep his last name under wraps while on the ship.

  The girl pulled out her smart phone and tapped his name into a note. “Got it.”

  “So, what brings you ladies aboard the Vision?” he asked. Maybe he could find out what was wrong with Sourpuss.

  “Just a girl week,” said the blonde. “Our little Melanie here has been working way too hard, so we’ve whisked her away for a week of fun in the sun.”

  Aha! So Melanie was her name. “Sounds like you have some great friends.”

  She gave a half smile and shrugged. “Yeah, except it seems like they may have gotten me fired from my job, so I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to enjoy my week here.”

  “Yikes.” So that was it. She was worried about her job. Maybe he could make things a little more comfortable for her this week. “Sorry to hear that. But you know, there’s not much you can do about it now that you’re here. Hopefully you’ll be able to have a little bit of fun.”

  “Yeah, he’s right, Mel,” the blonde said. “Just pretend Cliff doesn’t exist while we’re on the boat. You can worry about it once we get back.”

  Melanie sighed. “Lisa, I just—”

  “Besides,” Lisa interrupted, “Shauna already told you we’d be here for you. It was our fault, after all.”

  Devon was trying to follow the conversation, but it was starting to get confusing. Was Cliff her boss?

  “I know, guys. I’m trying, I promise,” Melanie said to her friends. “That ranting call from Cliff this morning doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that my position will still be available in a week. It sucks to be poor.”

  “Well, money isn’t everything,” Devon said before he could stop himself. “Not that I would know,” he added, trying to laugh it off. Keeping his identity a secret was going to be harder than he anticipated.

  “Isn’t this our room?” Shauna asked, pointing to the placard that read 4555 that he’d breezed on past.

  “Oh, uh, yeah,” he said, caught off guard. “Got a little distracted.”

  “Well, thanks for helping us find our room.” Lisa looked up at him and gave him a wink. “We look forward to our massages.”

  “It’ll be my pleasure, ladies. Enjoy your vacation.”

  The three girls disappeared inside. Devon should have moved on, but he wanted to hear if they said anything about him.

  “Oh, my God, he was so cute!” one of them squealed.

  “I know. Didn’t you think so, Mel?”

  “He was okay,” Melanie said, and Devon had to laugh. Boy, she was guarded, wasn’t she?

  Deciding it was slimy of him to stand outside their door and eavesdrop, he took a quick note of their room number and then headed back to the spa. He had massages to book.

  Three

  Melanie wanted to have a good time. Really, she did. But the call from Cliff that morning had really rankled her. She was pretty certain she didn’t have a job to go back to. And it wasn’t as if she had any money to float by on. She certainly wouldn’t have a penny left to her name once she got off this boat.

  She put her fingers to her forehead and massaged her temples.

  “Would you stop doing that, please?” Lisa was clearly getting annoyed with the chip on Melanie’s shoulder.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I know you guys paid a lot for this cruise, and I appreciate it, really I do. But I’m terrified about what’s going to happen when we get back. My parents aren’t in a position to help me out right now, and I’m a horrible waitress. It’s going to be impossible to find another job.

>   Lisa reached across the table where they were eating their lunch and grabbed Melanie’s hand. “Mel, we told you we’d be there for you if this got you into trouble. Please stop worrying, okay?”

  “Thanks, Lisa,” Melanie said with a sigh. It was frustrating that her friends thought they could solve everything by throwing her some money to pay her cable bill for a month. “But I need a job. I’m not like the two of you. I’m required to work for a living. And if I don’t, I’m screwed.”

  “We have jobs!” Shauna twisted her face up, clearly offended by Melanie’s accusations.

  Ha! They might have jobs, but both of them also had extremely wealthy parents. The two of them pretended that they had to work just so they’d fit into the “struggling artists in New York City” crowd. In reality, they had a bed of one hundred dollar bills to fall back on should they need it.

  “Look,” Lisa said, her mouth full of pasta from the buffet. “It’s not like you can leave, okay? So you might as well just forget about Cliff and that stupid diner and have a good time.”

  She had a point, though Melanie hated to admit it. She took a deep breath, deciding that they were right. There was no point in being miserable and making everyone else miserable too. Her friends had done something incredibly nice for her. The least she could do was try to have a good time.

  “All right,” she said at last. “You’re right. And I’m sorry. Let’s…have some fun!”

  Lisa and Shauna both Woohoo’d as if they were still 19-year-old sorority girls. Melanie laughed, grateful for their enthusiasm and their tenacity. They never failed to drag her out of her slumps.

  “So what should we do first?”

  They all agreed that hitting the pool and ordering fruity island drinks were the number one priority. The trio headed back to the room after lunch to change into their bathing suits and lather up with sunscreen.

  “Hey, what’s this?” Lisa had gotten to the door first and now held up an envelope with their room number written on the front.

  Melanie shrugged. “I don’t know. Open it.”

  They piled into the small room as Lisa tore open the envelope. “Oh, my God,” she said, her eyes wide with excitement. “Look at this!”

  Melanie grabbed the little cards she held in her hand. A sticky note was on top.

  Hope you girls enjoy your vacation!

  And under the sticky note were three vouchers for free massages, courtesy of Devon. Melanie tried to hide the smile that came to her lips, but she didn’t do a very good job. Devon was cute. Really cute. So cute that just the memory of him made her blush.

  “Mel, are you okay?” Shauna squinted at her, as if she were trying to assess her state.

  “Yeah, fine,” Melanie replied, but her voice came out on a squeak.

  Lisa raised her eyebrows. “I think somebody has a little crush.”

  Heat infused Melanie’s cheeks. “Stop it! I do not.”

  “You are such a liar. You’re like an open book, Mel.” Shauna disappeared inside the 2x2 bathroom.

  “All right, I think he’s cute. Are you happy?”

  “You should totally hook up with him.”

  “Lisa! I am not going to hook up with him.”

  “No, she’s right.” Shauna poked her head out from the bathroom. “It’s been way too long since you’ve…you know…”

  Melanie wanted to crawl under a rock. “Yes, I know.” She knew all too well how long it had been since she’d been to bed with a man. But she wasn’t like her friends. She couldn’t just jump into bed with someone because of her “needs.” Her Decadent Indulgence 3 was there for her in that case. What she wanted, but didn’t have time for, was a relationship. Someone to wake up to on Saturday mornings and go to brunch with on Sunday. Someone to watch movies with, order takeout with. And all those other things that couples did together.

  However, between sitting in audition rooms forty hours a week, and working at the diner another forty, she barely had time to sleep and eat, let alone nurture a fledgling relationship.

  Shauna stepped out of the bathroom clad in a bright orange bikini that looked amazing against her dark tan. Melanie took her place in the tiny space to put her own bathing suit on. No bikinis for her. A nice, full-coverage suit with a skirt was how she liked to roll. Not because she was fat, or even chunky. She was just modest. Which made for awkward times whenever she had to do a quick change backstage in the wings during a show.

  Not that she had dealt with that anytime recently. It had been years since she’d had that problem.

  She stepped out of the bathroom, hoping they would have dropped the subject. “Okay, let’s do this,” she said, but was hushed by Lisa, who was on the phone. “Who is she talking to?”

  “The spa,” Shauna mouthed.

  “Hi, I’d like to book massages for my roommates and myself. The first name is Melanie. And can you make sure that massage is with Devon, please.”